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defined telemedicine as a way to obtain health care which has not been available before. Therefore, telemedicine can mean
saving a live or losing a life while handling emergency cases whereby administrating immediate medical assistance in time
and specialty care is crucial. At North Carolina University Hos- pital, a specialist detected a hairline spinal fracture of a rural
patient at a distance via telemedicine video imaging. Subse- quent treatment was then performed on the spot without the
need of shifting the patient to the specialist’s location and the patient was saved.
There are a few similarities that can be seen among the various definitions. All these definitions were made in the mid-1990s
which suggests that telemedicine was recognized as a signifi- cant field only a decade ago. Other than that, all the definitions
can simple be related to giving a wide range of medical services from a far via any type of telecommunication technology.
1.5 Telemedicine Overview
At the beginning of the research, telemedicine was explained. In short, it can be explained as the utilization of networking and
telecommunication technologies in sending and receiving medi- cal and healthcare application data. With the current modern
telecommunication system data can be transmitted through var- ious networks in various forms. It can be as mere exchange of
ideas between two doctors via phone about a patient or as com- plex as a live feed of a surgical operation in a hospital transmit-
ted through an advance network of global hospital enterprise controlled by surgeons from various parts of the globe. To fur-
ther understand the wide description of telemedicine, a summa- rization of a few services supported by telemedicine is
illustrated in Figure 1.4. It is clear that the list is incomplete. Nevertheless it displays the major and common services applied
around the world. A common similarity can be seen in analyz-
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ing these services: emitting medical data between entities. Be- fore we move on, as a reminder that this is just an introductory
segment of the research, therefore the technical details and terms should not be a worry as it will be covered throughout the
research. It is obvious that different applications involve differ- ent data. Each of these cases will be analyzed to understand the
achievement of telemedicine. Even a simple usage of tele- consultation such as a transmission of usually verbal advice
from an expert to people, requires medical data. Recently, the service is now made available through mobile devices. Experts
can now perform diagnostics with medical instruments from afar via Tele-diagnosis simply by enabling communication con-
nection between two locations.
Telemedicine can also be as sophisticated as tele-Accident and Emergency tele-AE which is a service involving high defini-
tion imaging and vital signs of the patient collected at a remote location that must be transferred quickly and reliably to the
hospital. Features like retrieving medical history at real time and video conferencing are supported by some systems. In addi-
tion, monitoring patients who are recovering at home or con- stantly on the move whereby they are not anywhere near the
hospital can be done through tele-monitoring by the transmis- sion of various types of data. Some monitoring application
might require remote patients to attach compact wireless bio- sensors establishing a body area network BAN. Individual da-
ta captured by each sensor is collected within the BAN before being transmitted collectively for further processing.
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Figure 1.4 Subsets of telemedicine connecting different people and entities together FONG et al 2011
Various type of communication network might be needed for the telemedicine system in this particular situation. The in depth
explanation of networking will be covered in Chapter 2 with particular focus on the applications of telemedicine as in Sec-
tion 2.4. However, let us refer to Figure 1.5 for further under- standing on the emergence of three isolated networks that are
connected to form a telemedicine system. While moving around, the patient who is under observation is bounded by a
BAN, carried by the patient. A nearby local area network LAN receives the data collected, and stores and processes the
information. The LAN links the patient’s home and the hospital attended by the metropolitan area network MAN effectively.
LAN is a very typical and simple permanent home network fit- ted at the patient’s home. A telemedicine system that supports
tele-monitoring is feasible with the installation of the right equipment in correlation with the BAN, and a link to the hospi-
tal through the MAN.
Tele-surgery is perhaps the most extremely complex and diffi- cult to follow application partly due to the precision required.
Apparatus of very high degree of motion in every direction and
